DECEMBER 31, 1955

NEW YORK—At the year's end, there is one subject I would like to bring to the attention of
the American people. We can never forget that the people living in this country when
our ancestors first came here from other parts of the world were tribes of Red Indians.
Some of them were friendly, some of them belligerent.

Without the friendliness of some, many of our ancestors would have died, but others
did die at the hands of the Indians who wanted no white people to invade what they
considered their sole domain.

Gradually the white people spread from coast to coast and our government made agreements
with the Indians, granted them rights and land, and took on certain responsibilities.
Thus, we came to think of the Indians as wards of the state. Some are cared for in
part by the states, others come under the Indian Bureau, which is established in the
Department of the Interior to look after the welfare of the Indians, their health,
and education, their farming, and training in modern industry.

There is nothing to be proud of in the way we have done this job. We have been niggardly
in giving opportunities for education and health. We have drafted the male Indians
into service when necessary but have not given them full citizenship rights.

Lately there has been a move to wipe out the Indian Bureau and we have talked very
piously about making the Indians full citizens and "liberating" them from their ancestral
homelands. Some people probably think this is really a step in the interest of the
Indians. As a matter of fact, I am afraid in many cases it is a land grab.

No Indian in America is forced to live on a reservation, but these lands were reserved
by treaty to the Indian tribes. I think very few of our people realize that the present
policy will deprive the Indians of property rights guaranteed by treaties and contracts
entered into many years ago. Bills have been enacted by Congress, some of them without
any hearings and most of them with very inadequate hearings, which will violate these treaties.

One of the bills signed by the President authorized any local state government to
replace the Federal government whenever it chose to take over fully Indian matters.
This is one of the ways of proceeding to liquidate the services rendered by the Indian
Bureau.

This probably means that in many states when the policy of taking away the Indian
lands is actually achieved, the state will find a great number of poor Indians on
their relief rolls.

I think perhaps in the New Year it would be wise to review this whole policy as regards
our Indian fellow citizens. The Indians are a native minority in this country and
they have a right to preserve their culture, and to have preserved for them such economic
and social rights as were agreed to by treaty.